What is the Biolevate API?
This guide introduces the Biolevate API and its core concepts. For hands-on examples, see the Getting Started guide.
The Elise Platform
Elise is Biolevate's document intelligence platform. It connects to your storage backends, indexes files with AI-powered analysis, and extracts structured metadata (ontologies) from your documents. The Biolevate API provides programmatic access to this platform through a REST interface.
How It Works
The API is organized around six resource types that form a natural pipeline:
Providers
Providers represent external storage backends connected to the Elise platform. They can be Amazon S3 buckets, Azure Blob Storage containers, Google Cloud Storage buckets, SharePoint Online document libraries, or local file systems.
Providers are configured through the Elise admin portal. The API exposes read-only access to list and inspect them.
Provider Items
Provider Items are the raw files and folders that exist inside a Provider. Through the API you can:
- Browse directories and list files
- Upload files (direct or via presigned URLs for large files)
- Create folders
- Rename and delete items
- Download files
Operating on provider items does not trigger any indexation or analysis. They are raw storage operations.
EliseFile
An EliseFile is the central resource. When you create an EliseFile from a provider item, the platform:
- Registers the file in the Elise system
- Triggers indexation to parse and analyze the document content
- Computes ontologies (AI-extracted metadata and concepts)
This is the step that transforms a raw file into an intelligent, searchable document.
Collections
Collections are logical groups of EliseFiles. They allow you to organize indexed documents into workspaces, projects, or any grouping that fits your workflow. A file can belong to multiple collections.
Question Answering
The Question Answering API lets you submit natural-language questions about your indexed documents. The platform processes them as asynchronous jobs and returns AI-generated answers with explanations and source references pointing back to the document content.
Extraction
The Extraction API lets you define named metadata fields and have the AI extract their typed values from your indexed documents. Like Question Answering, it runs as an asynchronous job and returns structured results with source references.
Supported File Formats
The API supports indexation for the following file types:
| Category | Formats |
|---|---|
| Documents | PDF, DOC, DOCX, TXT, HTML, HTM |
| Spreadsheets | XLSX, XLS, CSV, ODS |
| Images | JPG, JPEG, PNG, WEBP, BMP, TIFF |
| Data | JSON, XML |
The REST API
All endpoints are served under the /api/core/ prefix and require Bearer token authentication via a Personal Access Token (PAT).
| Resource | Operations | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Providers | List, Get | Browse connected storage backends |
| Provider Items | List, Upload, Create, Rename, Delete, Download | Manage files and folders in storage |
| Files | List, Create, Get, Delete, Reindex, Ontologies | Index documents and extract metadata |
| Question Answering | Create job, Poll, Results, Inputs, Annotations, List | AI-generated answers to questions about document content |
| Extraction | Create job, Poll, Results, Inputs, Annotations, List | AI-extracted structured metadata fields from documents |
| Annotations | Get (per job) | Source passages and positions referenced by QA and Extraction results |
| Collections | CRUD + file association | Organize indexed documents into groups |
For complete endpoint documentation with request/response schemas, see the API Reference.
Next Steps
- Start Building
- Common Patterns
- Get authenticated and make your first API call
- Browse your providers to discover connected storage
- Manage files in your storage backends
- Index documents to unlock AI-powered metadata
- Organize into collections for structured workflows
- Ask questions about document content with AI
- Extract metadata fields from documents with AI
- Large file uploads using presigned URLs
- Pagination across all list endpoints
- Error handling best practices